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A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Saturday 24 November 2018
Film captures final days of legendary war reporter

By JOCELYN NOVECK says he stopped and told
Associated Press her: "Marie, I have a bad
"Legendary" is a hard-won feeling." She told him she
adjective. But by the time was going back, regard-
she was killed six years ago less. He joined her. "I went
in Homs, Syria, by President in with my eyes open," he
Bashar Assad's forces, Ma- says now.
rie Colvin had earned it. At Despite the unimaginable
56, she had already long risks, Martin takes pains to
been revered among fel- note that Colvin wasn't
low journalists for her brav- foolhardy.
ery and determination to "The cliche is that she was a
tell the story, at virtually any 'fearless' war reporter," the
cost. director said in an interview.
The New York native who "But what I got very clearly
wrote for Britain's Sunday from talking to people was
Times was also known for that she wasn't fearless. She
some other things: For was frightened all the time.
her trademark black eye Her achievement was that
patch, adopted after she she overcame it."
lost sight in one eye in a Sri The film also makes a point
Lanka grenade attack. For of showing her fiercely
her taste in vodka martinis competitive nature. When
and pearls. For her famous a group of French journal-
parties. And for being a ists arrive, just as Colvin's
notoriously prickly person This image released by Arrow Media shows photographer Paul Conroy, left, with war own editor is begging her
to work with, especially for correspondent Marie Colvin in Misrata, Libya. to leave, Colvin digs in her
photographers, whom she Associated Press heels. "It was her story and
cycled through as quickly she wanted it," Martin says
as the cigarettes she was with her when she died in assignment. Martin spent years assem- simply.
constantly smoking. Homs, and badly wounded In a striking coincidence, bling archive footage, in- The most heartbreaking
But Colvin found her profes- himself. Conroy has never "Under the Wire," directed cluding Conroy's own, and scene — in both the dra-
sional soul mate, and her stopped telling Colvin's by Chris Martin and based everything else he could matic film and the docu-
final journalistic partner, in story, and now he's telling it on Conroy's own book, is find. mentary, actually — takes
Paul Conroy, a freelance in a searing new documen- one of three major proj- The result is a stunningly im- place in a makeshift medi-
photographer and for- tary, "Under the Wire," an ects about Colvin released mediate account of the cal clinic in Baba Amr. A
mal British soldier who was account of their last, tragic within a few weeks. They in- tragedy, including audio badly wounded baby boy
clude the feature film "A Pri- from the moment the mis- arrives; doctors cannot
vate War," offering a take- siles hit. save him. By terrible coin-
no-prisoners performance It begins with Colvin and cidence, his own grand-
by Rosamund Pike, and a Conroy's decision to sneak mother is working in the
new book, "In Extremis: The into Syria in February 2012. clinic and begins to wail as
Life and Death of the War To protests of her friends she recognizes the baby.
Correspondent Marie Col- that it was just too risky, After witnessing the horrify-
vin," by her friend Lindsey Colvin replied, according ing death, Colvin decides
Hilsum. to Hilsum: "It's what we do." to go for broke. She broad-
What would Colvin think of The duo traveled over land casts from Homs, describ-
all the sudden attention? from Lebanon into Syria, ing watching the baby die
Conroy, who also served as then made a terrifying jour- in interviews on the BBC
a consultant to "A Private ney to Homs through an and CNN. "She was going
War," chuckles to think of it, underground water tunnel. to take the story and go for
saying that outwardly she'd Their destination: the work- it, whatever the cost," Con-
brush it off, but inwardly ing-class neighborhood of roy says.
she'd likely be proud — and Baba Amr, where starving Only hours later, missiles
happy that the attention is civilians were being bom- rained down on the make-
bringing the plight of the barded by constant shell- shift media center in which
Syrian people back into the ing. Colvin was filing. She and
spotlight. Colvin and Conroy docu- French war photographer
"It's the best lifetime mented the suffering, in- Remy Ochlik were killed in-
achievement award we cluding a Feb. 19 piece on stantly. Conroy and French
could give Marie," he said the "widows' basement," a reporter Edith Bouvier were
in a recent interview from cellar where mostly wom- wounded. There is shock-
his home in Devon, Eng- en and children crowded ing footage here of the
land, adding: "It's very hard in misery, sheltering from wounded journalists, in-
to describe your friend as the bombs. It was, says her cluding of Conroy's man-
a legend, but you have to editor, Sean Ryan, her very gled leg. "I need a tourni-
with Marie. She was a com- best work. quet!" he screams.
plete and utter one-off." The pair left Homs at one The film goes on to docu-
While "A Private War" is jus- point but Colvin insisted ment Conroy's harrowing
tifiably drawing Oscar buzz they go back; there was escape from Homs, liter-
for Pike, "Under the Wire" more reporting to be done. ally clawing his way out
has Colvin herself. Director Back in the tunnel, Conroy through mud. q